Amazon announces 2 new Kindles, one of which feels like paper

Yesterday details of a new e-reader called the Kindle Voyage leaked. Today Amazon confirmed its existence, but went a step further and also announced a new low-end Kindle.

Let’s start with the entry-level model, which Amazon is touting as its most affordable Kindle now with the addition of touchscreen input. It doesn’t have Paperlight, but then the original Kindle didn’t and it made for a perfectly good reading experience. The processor inside is 20 percent faster and the on-board storage has been doubled to 4GB. And the price? $79 with Special Offers or $99 without and it ships on October 2.

If you want something a little more feature-rich, however, Amazon offers up the Kindle Voyage. This model sits above the $119 Kindle Paperwhite and costs an extra $80 coming in at $199 for the WiFi model with Special Offers, or $219 without. You can also pick up the WiFi + Free 3G model for $269 or $289 respectively.

So what makes the extra $80 spend on this new model worth it? Well, it’s mostly about a brand new display. It uses an E Ink Carta 300dpi panel making for even crisper text and images. Amazon refers to is as “laser-quality text.” For comparison the Paperwhite display is only 212ppi. The glass covering the panel is strengthened Gorilla Glass, but in order to stop glare it has been micro-etched. The side effect of such a process, according to Amazon, is that the glass feels like paper.

The Paperlight has also been improved and is now 39% brighter than that found in the Paperwhite. As well as retaining the ability to adjust the light level yourself, the Voyage introduces a sensor that adjusts the light automatically depending on surrounding lighting conditions.

The way you turn pages has also changed with the introduction of PagePress. It’s a custom-designed force sensor built into the magnesium bezel of the Kindle Voyage. You press down on the bezel (denoted by two lines on the right and left of the screen), the page will turn, and you get a tactile feedback from a haptic actuator (in other words the Kindle vibrates). Two dots above the lines can be used in the same way for turning to the page before.

The crisper screen is going to be a big draw for existing Kindle owners, especially when you consider this is also the thinnest Kindle at just 7.6mm thick and weighs a mere 6.4 ounces. Amazon also claims battery life to be up to 6 weeks, so they haven’t skimped in that department.